


Throw Me in the Water (Don't Think About the Splash I Will Create)

by overratedantihero



Series: Stop Crying to the Ocean [1]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, Under the Red Hood
Genre: Alternate Universe - Merpeople, Dick Grayson is a Mer, Gen, Jealousy, M/M, Mention of Canonical Death, Possessive Behavior, Under the Red Hood!Jason
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-25
Updated: 2018-09-25
Packaged: 2019-07-17 08:46:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,359
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16092143
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/overratedantihero/pseuds/overratedantihero
Summary: “You can’t keep him,” Bruce said, crossing his arms to emphasize the finality of his statement. But Jason always did have a habit of taking what he wanted.





	Throw Me in the Water (Don't Think About the Splash I Will Create)

**Author's Note:**

> just a lil warm-up drabble of sorts based on a fleeting thought.

“You can’t keep him,” Bruce said, crossing his arms to emphasize the finality of his statement. Jason huffed. They were in the cave; Jason had stayed back from patrol because of a sprained wrist. Of course, that didn’t keep him from sneaking out anyway, and now he had a prize for his youthful rebellion, one he’d waited for hours to be able to show Bruce. And Bruce, who had barely paused long enough for an explanation, shot him down. Lame. But Jason was 15 now, a practical adult. He’d prove to Bruce that he was an adult, one who could make responsible, informed decisions.

Jason stomped his foot and whined, “But I want him, and I found him, and I brought him all the way over here! Look at him! He wants to be here!”

Bruce frowned and glanced over at the creature. It was lounging in one of the cave’s many natural pools, chin propped on its hand. Its eyes were wide and blue without pupils or whites. Its hair was dark and slick. Its gills were still, useless in air, and the scales that crawled across its shoulders and up its sides shone black and blue in the computer’s monitor light. Bruce swallowed hard when the creature’s long, glittering tail flicked water up.

“Can it even speak?” Bruce asked, with a curl of his lip. Jason rolled his eyes.

“Yes, I already told you, he talks to me. I don’t know why he won’t talk to you. Maybe it’s because you’re a boring downer who hates fun and cool shit I find in Gotham Bay.”

A strangled noise escaped from Bruce’s throat, and Jason grinned smugly.

“Ja-Robin. This… this isn’t like that time you found a copper pipe in the bay. This is a… this is a living creature. You can’t just claim it, we need to—I should run some tests and then we need to release it back into the wild.”

Jason huffed, “Lay off, he knows my name’s Jason. Dontcha, Dick!” Jason called over his shoulder. The creature blinked up at them blankly.

“Jason!” Bruce chided. “Don’t call it names.”

Jason barked out a laugh. “No, you big dummy. That IS his name. He told me to call him that.” Jason glared pointedly at the creature. “Feel free to chime in, any minute now, Dick.”

Dick sunk deeper into the water and propped his chin on the stone ground.

“God, you’re the worst,” Jason groaned, kicking a rock at Dick. Dick caught it and tossed it back. Bruce sighed.

“He can stay for as long as it takes me to run a few tests and create a file. Then he’s going right back where you found him.”

“Sure,” Jason smirked. “Whatever you say, big guy.”

* * *

 

Jason died, less than a year later. Bruce never did evacuate the creature, and he waited for Dick to appear for days. Dick seemed to have a sense when Jason was around, and it was rare he ever showed his face to Bruce without Jason present. But he must have known that something was wrong, because he finally surfaced after nearly a week.

He took in Bruce’s red rimmed, baggy eyes, the excess of bruises and bandages as evidence of Bruce’s late, violent nights. He tilted his head, furrowing his brows.

“Where’s Jason?” Dick demanded. Bruce blinked. He’d heard Dick’s voice before, from the Cave’s surveillance apparatuses, but Dick had never spoken to him directly.

“Gone,” Bruce forced out, voice harder than he’d intended. Dick glanced past Bruce, at the memorial that Bruce had erected. “I’m sorry,” Bruce added.

Dick opened his mouth, and then snapped it shut. He closed his eyes, scrunched up his face, and then opened his eyes again. Bruce didn’t realize his own lower lip was quivering until Dick reached out and wrapped a dripping arm around Bruce’s shoulder.

“Wha—” Bruce began, but then Dick pulled him into a tight hug.

When Dick finally released him, Bruce’s face was wet with tears and secondhand Cave water.

“Are you going to stay?” Bruce asked, voice rough. Dick glanced at the memorial again.

“Yeah. Probably.”

* * *

 

Dick took to Tim almost as quickly as he’d taken to Jason. Tim recognized Dick, from the several watery missions that he’d come along with Bruce and Jason, and later with just Bruce. If Bruce didn’t know any better, he'd say Dick treated Tim like his own. He fretted over Tim, and checked in on Tim, and demanded that Tim eat and sleep and behave in ways that he had not expected of Jason.

And although Tim shirked similar behavior from Bruce, he let Dick brush his hair from his face and lecture him and fret over injuries Tim picked up on patrol.

“This isn’t like you,” Bruce commented flippantly, once, after Dick had successfully convinced Tim to go nap in the medical wing for a spell. Dick regarded Bruce with raised eyebrows.

“Don’t presume to know anything about me,” Dick said, voice carefully level, “just because we loved the same person.”

“Love,” Bruce corrected. “Love the same people.”

Dick’s lips curled into a small smile. “Right, that’s right.”

* * *

 

Dick hadn’t been around for several weeks when Jason came back. Tim wanted to go into the pools, find Dick himself to tell him, but Bruce told him to wait.

“This isn’t Jason,” Bruce insisted. “Not as we knew him. Nothing has changed.”

Time frowned. “But… but, Bruce, he needs to know. This is still—he has a right to know.”

Bruce shook his head. “He won’t react well. Not to… to this Jason. This isn’t our Jason, his Jason. Don’t tell him anything, Tim. That’s an order.”

Tim pursed his lips. “Fine. But whatever happens is on you.”

While Tim and Bruce argued, Dick clung to the edge of a dock on the outskirts of town.

“He’s still alive,” Jason growled from where he paced, the unfamiliar red helmet contorting his voice.

If Dick were honest, everything about Jason was unfamiliar. He was no longer the short, wiry kid who first leapt into the Gotham Bay to chase Dick down in his cape and green hot pants (even though Jason hadn’t stood a chance, his moxie was something.) Jason had grown up, filled out. Grown angry.

“After everything he’s done, and he’s still alive. What the fuck is that, Dick? How could he do this?”

“I missed you,” Dick murmured, sinking back down into the water until it lapped at his chin. He looked up at Jason with his wide, eerie eyes. Jason paused and took in Dick for a moment before plopping down onto the wooden dock, crossing his legs.

“Yeah. What’ve you been up to?”

Dick chewed his lip, flashing sharpened teeth. “There’s another one. I’ve been watching him, trying to keep Bruce from losing him like he did you. Don’t be upset.” Dick reached out, grabbed Jason’s ankle as if that could keep him still. Jason sighed.

“We’re past that, Dick. I’m not upset. I’m fucking furious.”

Dick released Jason to pull himself out of the water, to hoist himself onto the wood. “Don’t leave me again,” Dick growled out. Jason tilted his head and reached a gloved hand out to push Dick’s hair back.

“I won’t. Why do you think I met you out here?”

Later, Dick would blame himself. He should have noticed the boat, the slowly encroaching men. When the net tangled around him, he cried out to Jason, but Jason stood up and walked away. Dick didn’t see him again until six goons, decked in Kevlar and tasers, poured a snarling Dick into a massive tank within a massive, well furnished warehouse. A base of some sort.

Dick beat his tail and fists against the glass of the tank. He swam back and forth, sharply, and bared his teeth at any passerby.

And then, Jason appeared before him. Without the hood, without a mask. His eyes were greener than Dick remembered, his expression nearly unreadable. Dick pressed his hands against the glass and scowled at Jason. Jason blinked up at him.

“You didn’t avenge me, and you’re sure as fuck not replacing me,” Jason said.

 


End file.
